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Everyone Needs a UV Lens Filter | Basic Coding Flash Video

CATEGORIES: Living In Layers | RC | September 22, 2008

Happy Monday everyone. Wanted to share a cautionary tale on why I think EVERYONE should own a UV lens filter. Is it for UV? No – not at all. Its for a few dollars worth of insurance.

I have a 50mm 1.4 Nikon Lens that I absolutely love. Recently though, I havent given it as much use as I used to, so its just been sitting in my office. This weekend, I wanted to go ahead and use it and I noticed that the front of it was smashed! Needless to say I started panicking that I had just wrecked my wonderful lens.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that while the lens had taken some drop – the only thing that was really dented was the UV filter that I had attached to it – a Hoya 52mm filter. A sigh of relief came over me after a few minutes of turning to get it off of the end of the lens.

Hoya 52mm UVlens – About 13 bucks
My 50mm 1.4 – About 300 bucks.

This isnt the first time that i’ve heard of tales of the UV filter saving a lens. They are out there, and now I am a faithful believer in them – even if I never really got the UV thing to begin with.

Tom Green on Flash Video
Today we also have Tom Green giving us a quick video on coding with Flash video. Definitely worth a peep. Make sure you check him out!

Basic Coding Flash Video – Tom Green

That’s it for today everyone. I’ll see you guys back here tomorrow morning!

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Visitor Comments »

amen on the lens filter. i was taking some very close up photos of
my son welding, and the filter got hit with some slag (hot metal)
ruined the filter, saved my lens.

Comment by Tim McVay | September 22, 2008 @ 7:55 pm

I never understood the use of a UV filter strickly for lens protection. Why would you stick a piece of 13 glass over the expensive glass of a lens. I guess it would be ok on a consumer lens but what about an L? It just seems odd when everyone talks about trying to find a lens that isn’t soft.

Comment by Mike | September 23, 2008 @ 9:56 am

2 years ago my wife dropped a 75-300 Canon lens with a UV filter on it. The filter was destroyed but the lens was and is still fine. I have a UV filter on all of my lenses. From http://dpfwiw.com/filters.htm#lens_protection “Light loss and aberrations seldom reach practical levels, but flare’s a fatal image flaw, and a common one at that, especially when the sun’s low in the sky near your subject.”

Comment by Chris | September 23, 2008 @ 12:37 pm

This seems like a subject that people have pretty different feelings on. I think I kind of echo the thoughts by the other Mike…

Maybe it’s in my head but I noticed a difference in the quality and number of tack sharp pictures that I was getting on both a 50mm 1.8 and 50mm 1.4 when I had a filter on versus the times I didn’t have filters. I ‘m primarily talking about the times that I was shooting wide open.

Anyway, I’d love to hear more of your thoughts (R.C.) and anybody else.

Comment by Mike Paterson | September 23, 2008 @ 5:31 pm

I keep them on my lenses like a secondary lens cap. When I get a new lens, I get a new UV filter for it. When I shoot sunsets or other scenes that cause flare with the filter attached, I remove it to shoot. I then replace it with the lens cap when I’m done. It’s cheap insurance.

Comment by Clint F | September 24, 2008 @ 1:08 pm